ures of our existence, we came in for a heavy
rain-storm that day, with deafening thunder and blinding lightning.
Notwithstanding the great discomfort it caused us, it pleased me very
much because of the wonderful effects of light it produced on the river.

Where the stream, in a course which had wriggled like a snake, turned
once more due north to 360 deg. b.m., it divided itself into two small
channels. High waves were produced where the water, pushed by the wind,
was forced against the rapid. There was a good drop in the level of the
river at that rapid, and it was a nasty place indeed for us to go
through. We got tossed about, splashed all over, but we came out of it
all the same, amid the wildly excited yells of my men. They were
beginning to think that they were the greatest navigators that had ever
lived, and they never let an opportunity pass of reminding each other of
that fact.

I halted in the middle of the day to take the usual observations for
latitude and longitude (lat. 8 deg. 47'.5 S.; long. 58 deg. 39' W.), but I was
interrupted in my work by another heavy rain-storm, which came and
drenched us once more. After that dense clouds as black as ink covered
the entire sky for the whole afternoon. We were now in the rainy season.
Terrific gusts preceded these rain-storms, and were most troublesome to
us.

After negotiating the bad rapids, the river went through a basin of
boulders of broken foliated rock. There were three small channels. Then
beyond, the entire river was forced through a rocky channel from 35 to 40
m. wide, the water rushing through with incredible force on a steep
gradient until half-way down the channel, where it actually ran uphill
for 50 m. or so, so great was the impetus it had received on its rapid
descent to that point.

You can well imagine what a pleasant job it was for us to convey the
canoe along with ropes over so delightful a spot. Owing to our
insufficient food, our strength had greatly diminished. The ropes we had
used on the many rapids were now half-rotted and tied up in innumerable
knots. Moreover, the banks of sharp cutting rock were of great height,
and our ropes were not long enough to be used separately, so that we
decided to use only one long rope made up of all the ropes we possessed
tied together. To make matters more difficult, the channel was not
perfectly straight, but described two or three sharp corners, where the
water was thrown with much vigour in one dire